The Carnival
by ReigningUnderground
Summary: 14-year-old girl is swimming with friends at a lake they always swim at every summer since they were all about 5. She mysteriously ‘drowns’ right in front of their eyes. What really happened may be much worse than drowning in a lake.
1. Chapter 1

(This chapter is going to be a little bit different for some people to read. All you have to remember is that it is going from after the transport to before and back and forth like that. Otherwise enjoy and please review. Good or bad both help me with my writing. =D thanx)

**Chapter 1: Arrival**

Elsa wakes from what seems like a long dreamless slumber. She feels her head to be sure there is no blood pouring from it. 'My head hurts so badly,' she thinks to herself awkwardly. She looks around in awe of her surroundings. To her left is a large hill-filled field full of flowers that seem to be singing; before her is a lake of purple water that looks so thick and lush she almost believes she can walk on it; to the right is a forest that looks charming and inviting but has no path; behind her the forest stretches as far as she can see and farther! She is so amazed and confused she cannot believe any information her eyes and ears are gathering. "Where am I?" she says aloud thinking that no one is around to hear her.

There is a slight commotion coming from the water's edge. She turns quickly to see what is happening but when she looks she sees nothing. The water was still. There were no ripples; no waves; nothing. It was just flat like purple stained glass. She hesitantly approaches the water. She is struck by a feeling of loneliness when she realizes that she has no reflection but her surroundings are perfectly portrayed as if in a mirror.

She moves away from the water in fear of what was going on. She finds a big flat rock to sit on to think about things. 'How did I get here and why am I here,' she wonders to herself.

Elsa gets in her friend Selene's jeep with her friends. They're all ready for their first swim of the summer. "Whoo!" yells Selene. "Are we all ready or are we forgetting something?"

"We're all ready," says Caroline. "Everyone has a towel, their bathing suit, and a great attitude! We're ready for FUN!"

Elsa laughs and nods her head to agree with Caroline, "Let's go Selene!"

They arrive at the lake they call 'Summer Paradise Lake' and start hopping out of the car. The lake appears to be even clearer than the year before.

Elsa remembers going to the lake but she isn't sure when. 'I don't know what to do. What is this strange place? I just want to go home…' doubtfully hoping for her homecoming from this place. "Where is everyone?"

"I know where everyone is Miss," says a voice. Elsa glances around sharply. She can't find where the voice is coming from. It feels like it is coming from all around her. "Just follow the dirt path. Someone is waiting for you at the end of it."

"Where are you? Who are you?" Elsa asks with both hesitation and power.

"All in due time friend," the voice retorts.

When they get everything out and lay their towels out. They decide it is time to swim.

"Swim time!" they squeal.

They all run down the dock and jump in together. They splash and play without a care four fourteen-year-old girls just having fun. "Let's play Marco Polo," says Sarah.

"Yeah," they all agree. One by one they all took turns playing. After they finish playing they think they are hungry and got out to eat.

"Peanut butter sandwiches! My favorite!" says Elsa. Everyone agrees with her that they like the sandwiches.

After eating they just lie around and sunbathe until they are ready to play again.

Elsa looks at the forest again, this time there is a path there that wasn't there before. "It's just a trick of the mind is all," she reassures herself. Noticing the forest doesn't look as inviting anymore she feels her muscles start to tense with anxiety. 'Why am I so afraid? This place isn't THAT different. I just have to gain my strength back and be brave. It will all be over soon.' she thinks to herself as she nears the path. 'I still don't remember how I got here. I've got to think back.'

She stops at the end of the path afraid that after the first step there will be no turning back. 'It's just paranoia. Everything is going to be fine.' She takes a deep breath and steps one foot onto the path. She flinches but nothing happens. 'No no. I can't do this what if it's a trick.'

It's too late. Her fears were true her foot can not be taken from the path. It feels like glue is sticking to the bottom of her shoe. 'I guess I have no choice. I must go now. Oh, I wish I was back home.' She steps her other foot onto the path.

Elsa jumps in with Sarah.

Sarah comes up and looks around. Elsa hasn't come up yet. Just then Elsa spurs from the water in a panic. "Help!" she yelps. Sarah swims toward her and the others jump in to help. Elsa is pulled under and doesn't come back up. There is no sign of her anywhere.

Once her second foot is on the path she turns to face the edge of the forest again, only to see that the gap she went through is no longer there. Fear consumes her. Her muscles begin to ache again. 'What am I going to do? I'm trapped here now.' Sadness fills her eyes with tears as she forces her legs to move forward down the path. Or is it something else forcing her to proceed. It is too difficult to tell with all the emotions she feels.

Under the water she is enclosed in a bubble. It changes colors as it moves towards the lake bottom. She can see her friends coming in after her. But it's beyond time for saving her now.

The bubble begins to disappear through the bottom of the lake. Elsa faints with fright.

Elsa tries to feel strong. She has always been the courageous one in the family, but she is always afraid. 'Why am I running?' She continues down the path as if running a marathon. Still unsure of what is forcing her to progress.

On the sides of the path she sees strange shadows of strange creatures. Every time she looks in the direction the shadows are coming from there is nothing there. 'Why can I only see the shadows? I'm being watched I can feel it.'

She stops amazingly not out of breath or tired. Looking ahead of her she sees the most astonishing thing. Yet it seems so eerily familiar.

**NOTE: Chapter 2: The Waiting**


	2. Chapter 2

(This is where things get a little simpler as far as reading goes enjoy =D R&R please)

Recap of last few sentences in ch.1= She stops amazingly not out of breath or tired. Looking ahead of her she sees the most astonishing thing. Yet it seems so eerily familiar.

**Chapter 2: The Waiting**

There is a very long, decorative, rectangular dining table. The designs on it are swirls and polka dots. They look child-like but yet elegant at the same time. The designs are turquoise and the table itself is a deep dark purple. The legs look like giant swerves with niches in them. Elsa is fascinated with its pure style.

The strangest thing about the table is what is sitting in every chair except the two end seats. They are ceramic dolls dressed in colorful attires. They don't look very sturdy. Nor do they look well taken care of. They are just flopped up in the chairs like rags. Elsa feels a little pity for them. They look so sad.

For some reason there is no sound. She didn't even realize there was sound before, but now that the near silence is now silence she notices. There is movement beyond the furthest chair at the end of the table. She can't see what it is even though it isn't hiding. Whatever it is pulls the chair from the table and pushes it in again.

"Please sit," a sweet sounding voice says. "Please I have been waiting for you and would like not to have to wait too much longer. There are things that must be spoken and things that will remain hidden, but for now you must sit in order for our meeting to begin."

Elsa pulls the chair from the table at the end nearest where she stands. "Here?" she indicates the seat.

"Yes, dear, sit."

She takes the seat and peers up at the table. The dolls now sit erect and proper looking directly at her with their sad, dreary, glass-like eyes. They are no longer dressed in the colorful clothing she had seen before. Now they have on black and grey dresses, shirts, and pants.

The table is now black with red designs. Now they are not swirls and polka dots. They look indescribably dark and sharp. The legs now look like the heels of stilettos growing out on the table bottom.

She strains to see what sat at the end of the table. She still cannot see who or what it is. She does, however, discover what it is about this place she finds so familiar. The table area looks just like the one at her Aunt Cecile's house. She used to spend her summers at her house before her aunt died when she was five.

The thing that sat on the other end of the table now reveals itself. It looks like a bunny rabbit with a female human body. It is a grey and white bunny. The mix of human-like and bunny-like traits makes Elsa feel strangely more comfortable but distant. She keeps thinking that she had seen this creature before.

It raises its paw/hand as if to greet Elsa. "I am Zena. I know you are wondering why you are here and I am here to tell you. You are here because you were a 'chosen one'. What it means to be a 'chosen one' is that you were able to slip through the space between our worlds and end up here. I'm not entirely sure what makes you different from the ones who aren't chosen but someday I might be able to find out." She looks at Elsa with discouragement and shame. "Your name is Elsa. I can learn things about you just by being in your presence. When I said my name you revealed to me yours. Maybe you had not intended to but you did. I am very unhappy to have to inform you that you cannot return to your world, or at least no one ever has been able to in the past."

"You can read my mind? I can't leave?" she begins to panic. "Why did this have to happen?" she sobs to herself. "Why do I have to be trapped in a world that is not my own? I just want to go home! Is that really too much to ask!?"

"Calm down. You will disturb everyone around here with that hysterical crying. It's not that bad here you just have to know what to do and what not to do. I can help you with all of that. Just try to…" her face begins to contort. Half of it makes a transformation into a horribly scary looking creature. It has a horn coming from the side of its head, sharp jagged teeth, just a flat out gruesome appearance to it. "What are you doing you foolish fiend!?" both sides of the face harmonize in both a raspy and sweet voice. "I am welcoming our guest!" they say. "Well stop it! Don't give her the wrong impression of this place! It is not easy to survive here, my dear. There are things living and happening in this world that can never even be dreamed of in your world." they synchronize. "Just run. Run as fast as you can. Things will catch up with you but you'll have more of a chance. You'll never see the outside from this point on. No human that ever landed here is still alive. Just keep going you won't even know it hit you. Death can be swift. Just don't struggle too much. You won't feel a thing if you ask the right questions."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"Just run until you feel safe and rest for a while death can be painless."

"Why are you doing this to me?" is

"There is nothing I can do to save you now. You've already begun your downfall. Your procession is fast. Speeding toward death, to you, must be a real blast!"

Elsa gets up from her seat and begins running. Looking back only once, the table is as it was before she sat. She starts slowing down when she feels she has lost it. Zena, that creature isn't all that friendly. ,

Still in the forest, she finds a big tree with raised roots she can hide behind. 'I should be safe here. At least long enough to rest. I can't believe what is happening. Home, I miss you so much.' She lies down against a root and falls fast to sleep.

**Note: Chapter 3: Wisdom**


	3. Chapter 3

Ch. 3 Wisdom

(Please R&R ^.^)

After a deep slumber, she wakes to screeching, much like an owl's. She looks about her to be sure it is safe to move. After getting up she spots a small figure in the tree above her. It feels like it is looking directly at her so she hunkers down behind and half under the root where she was sleeping. The figure walks to the end of the limb and jumps down, branch to branch, until it reaches the ground near her.

"Hello, there. I am Polly," the creature says in a delightful voice; the same delightful voice that directed her to the path through the woods. "I am surprised you chose this particular tree to sleep near. Your name is Elsa, right?"

"Yes. Why are you surprised? It's the only tree I see with raised roots."

"It has raised roots for a reason."

"What reason is that?"

"This tree is called Saggezza or Quello Saggio which means 'wisdom' and 'The Wise One' in Italian. This tree knows all there is to know about this world but, you have to meet his approval before he will advise you."

"What can I do to achieve approval?"

"I don't know. You will have to ask him yourself."

"Why must I do it?" Elsa says with cowardice.

"Because you are the one seeking advice; he has a different way of approving every individual. He will only tell _you_ what _you_ have to do."

"All right, I will try." She stands up straight and clears her throat. "Okay, how do I get his attention, Polly?" She asks, a bit bewildered by her thoughts of possibly having to do something first.

"You just have to say his name three times."

"Okay, here goes nothing. Saggezza! Saggezza! Saggezza!" she says loudly as the tree begins to come to life. The midsection of the trunk begins to contort into a face, before her eyes. 'There are so many things that can transform in this world,' she thinks to herself. 'I would be amaze with it if I weren't so afraid.'

"Who disturbs my rest!" demands the tree with the face of an old man. "Was it you, Polly?" The eyes move to look at Polly.

"It was not I, Sir. A newcomer needs to know some important information about our world." Polly points toward Elsa as the eyes move to look at her now.

"You woke me?" he says with puzzlement. He looks at Polly again, "I told you to stop telling people how to summon me!" angry with Polly.

"I know you don't know me and I don't know you but, I just want to know how to survive here until I can find my way back to my dimension. Can you help me please?" she pleads with Saggezza.

"You poor pathetic child; there is no way to return to your home from here. You can only pass through the portal once, unless you are a Brownie like Polly, the ruler of this world, another magical creature that can, or you posses some kind of power I do not sense. You cannot go back to your home. You will just have to make a new home here."

"Please tell me about your world? I will hang on every word as long as it helps me to survive." She cries.

"I will help you but, you're not going to like most of what you hear," Saggezza sympathizes.

"It's okay, Sir. She really wants to and needs to know if she wants any chance to survive," Polly interrupts.

"I will tell you the most important things first," he exclaims. "After I tell you those, you will find me some wild black berries to consume for waking me."

"Okay."

"First thing you need to know is to stay away from the creatures of this world you do not know anything about or do not know personally, which should be all of them. The second thing you need to know is to stay away from Zena. She is not your friend, no matter how friendly she appears to be. She can turn on you at any time. The third thing you need to know is to beware of small creatures that look like rolly-pollies in your world but, they are much larger and they cling to you and feed off of you like leeches. To get rid of them you have to step in the water. Which is lucky, because you only find them near water. The fourth thing you need to know is to not get above the knee deep in the water, or else it will swallow you and you will die. This means no swimming or wading in the lakes. The last thing you need to know is that the berries I seek are at the edge of the lake, they have spikes on them, so be careful. I need those because, as I am now, I don't have the strength to move much. I need eight of them." He coughs some.

"Is that why you have raised roots? To move?"

"Yes. Now off with you and don't forget what I have told you here. Bring me my berries!" his face becomes flat bark again. She motions for Polly to follow her.

"I'll come with you and help you find the lake. You are going the wrong way. We need to go to your right to get where we're going."

"Thank you for helping me," she smiles down at him.

"You're welcome. I just hate seeing all you human children letting this world devour you."

"That's nice to know," she frowns.

"It will be fine. Just follow Saggezza and my instructions and you will be fine." He smiles back at her. They head to the right and continue to the lake.


	4. Chapter 4

Ch. 4: The Berries

They Continue on to the lake and finally get there. "Where did he say the berries were?" she asks Polly.

"They are at the edge of the lake," he looks around and points. "There they are." He looks at her with sad eyes.

"Why do you look so sad? We found them! Isn't that a good thing?"

"Yes. Yes. Let's get back to Saggezza." Elsa sees something different out of the corner of her eye. It's a barren field with trenches and fiery holes.

"What is that over there?" she asks Polly as he is pretending not to hear her. "Polly, what is that over there?"

Now he hears her, "Oh! That's a very dangerous place. You need to stay away from there."

"Okay." She says wearily.

They enter back into the woods and meet up with Saggezza again. Elsa is still puzzled by the way Polly is acting now. First he looked at her strangely, and then he pretends not to hear her and won't answer her questions. It feels like he knows something he isn't telling her. She is quiet nearly the whole way to meet Saggezza. He is still in the same place as before, or at least it seems like he is. "Did you bring me my berries, Elsa?" Saggezza asks.

"Yes, I got eight of them like you told me to."

"Good! Please hand them to me." She gives them to a branch he is holding in front of her.

"Is that all you need?"

"Yes," he exclaims as he gobbles the berries. Elsa begins to feel light headed and sits on the forest floor. Polly gives her the same look as he did when they were at the lake. She doesn't notice right away but, when she does she decides to wait until they are alone before asking what is wrong.

After a while of sitting down, Elsa gets up and says her thank yous and goodbyes to Saggezza and her and Polly head back to the lake. On the way Elsa starts thinking about the look he had given her several times before but, had never really noticed until recently. "Why do you refuse to look at me?"

"I don't."

"You do too! And when you do look at me you give me the same sad expression every time! Tell me whatever it is you aren't telling me!"

"I can't! I'll get into huge trouble!"

"Please!? If it's something bad I need to know! I thought we were friends."

"If there's anything you need to learn from all of this is that you cannot trust this world or anyone in it. Even if they seem like they're your friends. DON'T TRUST ANYONE!"

"Ok, so I need to stop being your friend?"

"No. I'm going to take a huge risk for you and tell you some things."

"I'm sorry it is so risky to tell me things but, I have to know."

"The reason I wouldn't touch those berries is because you seal a memory of yours in each one of the berries when you touch them. They are 'Tribute Berries'. You paid a tribute of memories to Saggezza when you gave him the berries. I'm not supposed to expose things about this dimension to you because I am a Brownie. I work for creatures in this world that could kill me if they ever had a slight doubt in my loyalty. That's why I had to let it happen. I work for Saggezza."

"Ok. Well, I feel fine. I don't feel like I have forgotten anything."

"When you felt light headed that was you losing those memories. You don't feel like you have lost anything because your mind has forgotten it."

"So I have lost memories and I can't even feel that they are gone?"

"Yes. But that isn't all. Every time you ask a question in this world a memory is put in harm's way by making it easier for you to lose them, whether through normal forgetting or by storing them in the berries. Neither of us knows how many memories you really have already lost."

"Oh, no! I don't want to lose my memories. Why memories though?"

"Memories are like the key to your soul. Once all of your memories of your former life are gone your soul belongs to this world. Therefore, it belongs to her."

"Zena?"

"Yes. I'm sorry Elsa but, the longer you stay here the less chance you have to get back home. I'm going to take you somewhere," he pauses. "Somewhere you asked me about earlier."

"Where?"

"Elsa! Stop asking questions! You are going to lose more memory that way. Just let it go! I'm going to take you to the field of the damned. I need you to meet someone you will like. She is a Thestral. She will be able to help you through this world better than I. I work for her. She is the only one I can think of that won't get mad at me for helping you. She isn't afraid of Zena. You will really like her."

Continuing on their way back to the lake they see a shadow coming from behind a tall, wide tree. "Who's there?" Polly calls out. Keeping Elsa from continuing on forcefully, was a difficult task for such a small creature.

After stopping her he insinuates for her to see the shadow. "Who's there?!" he calls out again, louder than before.

The shadow moves slowly. A head comes from behind the tree, timid, but yet unafraid. "Polly!" the creature grins. "It's been a long while friend. How has everything been?" The creature comes out from behind the tree and comes nearer. When it is close enough, Elsa notices the creature is missing the underneath part of its body. It is strangely humanlike otherwise, with bat-like wings, and fangs covered in blood. As it flies closer and closer, Elsa can feel her legs tingling to move back farther and farther.

"Everything is fine Bellin."

"Is this a human child? She looks…" he licks his bloody lips. "tastey. Are you bringing me a nice dinner? You should know this is my feeding time and you missed my hunger streak by just a few moments."

"She isn't for you, Bellin. I am taking her to Talianna."

"Aww!" he gives a diminished expression like all joy was lost. "She asked for her first huh? Dang! I'll have to ask Talianna for her when she gets done with her." He says as he rubs his hands together with an eager smile.

"I don't think she will be done with her anytime soon, Bellin."

"It still doesn't hurt to ask." He gives a grimace and a growl to Polly for his dismissive attitude. "I guess I'll see you around, Polly. Don't forget about me. I want a special dish every once in a while. He! He! He!" Bellin laughs.

"Yeah." Polly says hurriedly and pushes past the creature. "Bye Bellin."

"By Polly and tastey!" the creature waves and grins quickly and returns to the tree he came from. Upon passing we could see that he was feeding on something. Whatever it is, it is bloody.

They go on toward the forest's edge to get to the lake and the field. Once reaching the lake Polly turns toward Elsa and says, "You need to be friendly but quiet when we meet Talianna. She is very nice but you don't want to get on her bad side by insulting her somehow." He looks at the field before them and starts walking forward. Elsa follows wearily. They keep their heads up and their faces looking forward toward a very large castle-like rock formation in the center that looks like it may be the portal to Hell. "That is where we're going and that's where we'll find Talianna." Elsa gulps because the place doesn't look as friendly as Talianna appearently is.


End file.
